Todd Hatton

Morning Edition Host, Producer

John Paul Henry Photography

Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.

Kentucky's Labor Cabinet says it saved companies up to $434,000 in potential fines by conducting five on-site visits last month for employers across the state. As a result of the free, on-site visits, also known as "consultative surveys," the cabinet says employers corrected 62 serious violations.

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles plans to announce an initiative to combat hunger today. The Ag Department says Quarles will unveil a program at the Kentucky Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Lexington that creates economic incentives to provide fresh local produce for residents in need. Quarles formed a statewide Hunger Task Force in 2016 to address the problem at a time when food banks were struggling to keep up with demand.

Today, Catholics are a prominent part of Kentucky politics. Current State Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, former U.S. Representative Anne Northup, and former U.S. Senator Jim Bunning are just a few examples. But in 1960, for only the second time in U.S. history, a Catholic topped a major presidential ticket and Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy confronted the same issue that defeated fellow Democrat Al Smith in 1928: his religion. Some Kentuckians feared Kennedy's faith, believing he would follow the Vatican over the U.S.

This weekend, Murray State's Cinema International features the 2011 Austrian film "Breathing." This meditation on redemption is the product of a first-time director and a first-time actor, and it follows a young man incarcerated for an accidental killing as he rediscovers life through working in a morgue. Todd Hatton speaks with Cinema International director Dr. Therese St. Paul and MSU assistant professor of French and German Dr. Roxane Riegler about "Breathing."

This weekend, Murray State's Cinema International celebrates Halloween with the seminal 1922 horror classic "Nosferatu." The silent film puts a German expressionist spin on the story of Count Dracula and, thanks to director F.W. Murnau (muhr-NOW) it invented much of the visual language of modern horror movies. And, when you get right down to it, "Nosferatu" is still creepy, even after almost a century. Todd Hatton speaks with Cinema International director Dr. Therese St. Paul and MSU theatre professor Dr.

This weekend, Murray State's Cinema International features the 2003 Bhutanese film "Travellers and Magicians." It's a colorful travelogue that tells a story within a story. A young government official in love with the idea of America travels from his sleepy village to the capital to pick up the documents that will allow him to travel to the United States. Along the way, he meets a Buddhist monk who offers him a new way to see his native culture. Todd Hatton speaks with Cinema International director Dr. Therese St. Paul about "Travellers and Magicians."

This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30, Murray State's Cinema International features the 2002 French/Chinese film "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress." This acclaimed coming-of-age film is based on the director's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Set during China's cultural revolution, two boys are sent to the country for Maoist re-education. They discover a cache of forbidden French books and awaken the imagination of a young seamstress. Todd Hatton speaks with Cinema International director Dr. Therese St.

This weekend, Murray State's Cinema International features the 2015 Belgian film "Brand New Testament." The dark comedy portrays God as a reclusive cynical writer living in a Brussels high rise with his daughter. She determines that her dad is doing a less-than-good job and decides to change the world's status quo with a "new" New Testament. Todd Hatton speaks with Cinema International director Dr. Therese St. Paul, Professor Robert Fritz of MSU's Global Languages Department, and Dr. Eleanor Rivera of Murray State's Department of History about "Brand New Testament."

This weekend, Murray State's Cinema International features the 2011 film "Clandestine Childhood." This Argentinian film, set during the rule of Argentina by a military junta in the late seventies and early eighties, tells the story of a young boy whose family is resisting the government. It's told from the boy's perspective, mixing film and animation to portray how he sees the country's swirling political turmoil. Todd Hatton speaks with Cinema International Director Dr. Therese Saint Paul, Murray State Political Science professor Dr. Marc Polizzi, and Dr.